View from the left: NEW TRIMOORTI

MURDER IN CUSTODY

Calling the Chittoor and Nalgonda encounters as “custodial killings”, the CPI(ML) demands the immediate arrest of the policemen involved on charges of murder. The editorial in ML Update says both incidents raise serious questions about the weak state of democracy, where “fake encounters” become the norm. The editorial rejects the police version that they opened fire in self-defence: “All evidence suggests that the 20 men… were picked up at random… and then killed in cold blood…”

LEFT UNITY

In an article in the CPI’s New Age, party general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy calls for the reunification of the communist movement on a principled basis: “For a long time the sympathisers of the Left and democratic sections of our society are raising with high hopes the question of communist unity. They ask when there is a consensus on many political issues, when joint actions are already taking place, when Marxism-Leninism has been accepted by the entire Left, why then separate entities are needed?”

The recently held 22nd CPI party congress too had given a call for communist reunification. Reddy notes that the anxiety and concern of the comrades at the losses the party suffered were reflected at the congress.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.